124 comments:

I remember when people questioned McCain for picking Palin, saying it showed a lack of judgment. The Republicans should be pouncing on each and every one of these gaffes. It should be a running dialog all the way up to the next election.

I want every thread to talk about Sotomayor, and this comment is somewhat relevant. Yesterday, the report I heard was that the future USSC justice's written comments, which comments she was to deliver after being introduced by the President, were scrambled -- that is, the WH team scrambled the pages (accidentally, I'd like to think). But she had memorized the speech and gave it that way.

Everything I read about her makes me think she is an excellent choice.

I remember when people questioned McCain for picking Palin, saying it showed a lack of judgment. The Republicans should be pouncing on each and every one of these gaffes. It should be a running dialog all the way up to the next election.... words right out of my mouth. Of course, the republicans won't, because they can't make even the most obvious right decisions.

Once again, you've got to hand it to the Left. They end up with the dumbest possible VP, so they simply flip the narrative, and start calling Palin dumb. And it worked. It's all based on a lie: Biden, smart and qualified, Palin, stupid. But whatever, it worked.

Biden either a) said he could deliver some demographic to the ticket, b) delivered serious MBNA money to the DNC, c) needed to be bought out (see b), d) convinced Obama he had friends in the senate, or e) figured this was his gold watch time (a la Bob Dole).

I think you're right. I'm sure there is a gag order on him to not talk about anything other than sports.

Reporter: "VP Biden, do you think we need more women on the Supreme Court?"

Biden: ""Absolutely!! They are underrepresented. This is America after all and if a despotic country like North Korea can have a female head of state, we can at least get a representative proportion of females on our highest court."

"Polling showed [Biden} helped with the older demographic, Obama's biggest weakness. Old people like Biden."

IRRC, Obama chose Biden mainly for his experience and supposed expertise in foreign policy. That was thought to be an especially weak part of Obama's background, his childhood years in Indonesia notwithstanding.

Prediction: Joe Biden will resign before the end-of-the-term for "unspecified health reasons" or maybe they'll attribute it to the fact that he had a stroke 20 years and isn't fully there mentally now. Obama will appoint a new VP - the question is who?

"I want every thread to talk about Sotomayor, and this comment is somewhat relevant. Yesterday, the report I heard was that the future USSC justice's written comments, which comments she was to deliver after being introduced by the President, were scrambled -- that is, the WH team scrambled the pages (accidentally, I'd like to think). But she had memorized the speech and gave it that way."

I call shenanigans. That urban myth has been told at least a hundred times about at least a hundred public figures. I seriously doubt its veracity.

Further, she can give a prepared speech without a teleprompter. Big whoop. Any good trial lawyer has only done that about a thousand times.

When I was in high school, the teacher (a nun) was giving a talk on abortion using slides. She was about to start and had to leave the room to talk to the principal in the hallway.

I ran to the slide projector and quickly switched around the slides.

The talk began. The first few slides went okay. The 5th one was meant to show a healthy newborn, but up came a photo of body parts. Laughter. Tension. More slides out of order. Nervous laughter. Angry recrimations. She left in tears.

Obama chose Biden mainly for his experience and supposed expertise in foreign policy.I think that was the story, but I always thought it was just another way to show himself as an anti-Bush. That he wasn't going to be controlled by his wiser, more experienced VP.

I think BO chose Biden for a couple of reasons. First, he is a total neophyte and has few close friends in Washington. Who was he going to chose instead of Biden, Bill Ayers? He couldn't chose Hillary and be the Rochester to the Bill and Hillary show for 4 years. Edwards was out for the love child scandal. He just didn't have a lot of choices. Biden was thought to be kind of a boring pick. Biden also allows him to chose a younger running mate and designated successor in 2012 if he hasn't just dispensed with formality and burned the Constitution by then.

"uh, Ann? The teleprompter is not the joke. It's the right wingers who actually seem to think Obama is the first President to use a teleprompter."

The teleprompter is a joke not because he is the first President to use one. He is not. It is a joke because he uses one at all times. Obama was sold as the brilliant speaker when in fact he is a brilliant reader. Away from a teleprompter he is painful to watch. The guy cannot put three words together without saying "um". And he cannot speak off the cuff without saying something stupid.

was it true that Bush didn't use a teleprompter because he couldn't read? just a rumor i heard. might not be true but would explain a lot of things...Obama rubbing it in Bush's face that he can read and Bush couldn't...that kinda thing...

Every President in my life time is associated with stories of them making an off the cuff funny remark or of being able to walk into a room and put people at ease and talk to any issue. Even George Bush has stories like that. Clinton and Reagan were masters of it. Give me one single anecdote of Obama doing the same? Every moment of brilliance he has involves him reading a speech off of a teleprompter. He really missed his calling. He should have been a TV News anchorman. Both he and the country would be a lot better off.

It's the right wingers who actually seem to think Obama is the first President to use a teleprompter. .

Not even close to being true. It's just that someone who is touted as the reincarnation of Cicero can't seem to string more than three consecutive words without it that's all. Look at him speak Alpha, he can't even look at the people in front of him because when he speaks. Why? Maybe because there is no teleprompter there?

Now I know you're just a partisan hack but your bullshit comment needed clearing up.

"It's an absurd issue from an absurd opposition party. Hence, a rich vein of cheap jokes."

Jokes only stick if they have a grain of truth to them. Obama is an empty suit. He never accomplished anything beyond running for office before being elected President. His whole campaign was based on meaningless and slightly creepy slogans and art work. The teleprompter jokes are just an expression of what everyone knows but only some like to admit. There is no there there.

There is no doubt that Obama selecting Joe Biden indicates a serious lack of judgement. McCain needed Palin to be a game changer which didn't work out but Obama could have picked a large number of running mates and still won, yet he picked Biden.

Why? Other than getting his input on foreign policy and doing the opposite, I can't think of any reason.

"I find Obama's slow and deliberate speaking style when the camera's are rolling to be annoying.

But it's understandable. He's being careful. one misstep and there goes 2-3 news cycles."

That wasn't true of Reagan, Bush I or Clinton? They never seemed to have a problem speaking off the cuff. Further, they never had the control over the media Obama does. Outside of Fox News and a few designated conservative newspapers, the entire media acts as a coordinated PR campaign for him. So it is not like he has to worry about scrutiny. Considering how much his audience loves him and tries to look out for him, he should be the most relaxed President in history when doing press conferences. Other than Kim Jong Il, I can't think of a world leader who has it easier when speaking to the media.

Perhaps, he speaks slowly and says stupid things when not scripted because he is just not very good at it?

"John, Ronald Reagan was famously known as "the Teflon President" because the press wouldn't criticize him."

No he was known as the Teflon President because the public refused to blame him for anything. The media in contrast was brutal to him at every opportunity. They hated his guts. They were just never able to damage him like they did Bush. Thus, the media dubbed him The Telfon President in recognition of their failure to lay a glove on him for 8 years.

Alpha - "It's the right wingers who actually seem to think Obama is the first President to use a teleprompter."

I don't think most here are aware of that.

They think past Presidents spent 99% of their time memorizing speeches so they wouldn't have to rely on notes or teleprompters.

Then again, take the speech Cheney gave last week. If you watch the video, 95% of the time you're looking at the top of the man's head...because he's bent over at the podium READING the speech from prepared text.

I FINALLY got why Obama turns his head back and forth like when he talks after reading this thread: it's the teleprompter! I just thought that was the way he naturally talked or something. That's hilarious.

Look left, say something, look right, say something. Hahahaha.

What does it say about us that our last President, and current President, could both use speech coaches?

onparkstreet said..."What does it say about us that our last President, and current President, could both use speech coaches?"

First of all, the fact that you didn't understand that there were teleprompters to each side of the podium is rather hard to believe.

As to your comment that "could both use speech coaches"...are you actually saying Obama is not considered a great public speaker?And what "coaching" would you recommend for Obama? Spend more time memorizing speeches instead of governing? Look straight ahead at all times?

Did you even watch his speech at Notre Dame?

Millions of Americans did and he got rave reviews from both sides of the aisle.

I do think that President Obama could use a speech coach, or, probably better, spend a couple of years in Toastmasters. A lot of his "problems" could be cleaned up that way. A relatively small club, where you get to do something most weeks would be best.

As for his ability to handle questions at press conferences, etc., my impression is that he does well when he knows the questions in advance, and can have a scripted answer ready, but much less well when he is not working from canned responses. Again, this is the sort of thing that Toastmasters would have cleaned up, at least enough that his speaking off the cuff wasn't uncomfortable.

Rush, of course, has made Obama's teleprompter a running gag, treating it almost as a real person, controlling what Obama says, screwing up the President when mad, etc. So, to some extent, we can thank Rush for Biden's teleprompter joke.

To some extent, the left is hoist upon its own petard here, by perpetuating the meme for eight years that Bush (43) was dumb because he made verbal mistakes when speaking without a script (or teleprompter). Now they have their President, who is supposedly so much smarter than his predecessor, who can't do much better without his teleprompter. Does this mean that he is as stupid as Bush (43) was?

The reality, of course, is that neither one is anywhere near stupid. Bush (43)'s problem was that his analytical abilities were notably greater than his verbal abilities (as evidenced by his SAT scores). And it is likely that Obama is in a similar situation. Some people are just not as sharp on their feet as others. This doesn't mean that they aren't smart, just not smart that way. President Obama just seems like the type of person who is most comfortable being well prepared for his speeches, and is still uncomfortable winging it. It just isn't his personality.

"After carefully watching Ronald Reagan, I can see he's attempting a great breakthrough in political technology. He has been perfecting the Teflon-coated presidency. He sees to it that nothing sticks to him. He is responsible for nothing."

"That wasn't true of Reagan, Bush I or Clinton? They never seemed to have a problem speaking off the cuff."

Why would anybody here think Obama doesn't speak "off the cuff?"

He's had many town hall meetings, press conferences (more in 100 days than Bush in 3 years), and interviews conducted via television and radio news shows.(He's being interviewed by Brian Williams at the White House as we post right now...and he's not carrying teleprompter around with him either.)

I admit it's fun reading all of the whiny and bitchy comments about Obama's speech pattern and of course, the teleprompter, but one would think someone (even a wingnut) would inject a bit of factual information from time to time.

And nothing the press threw at him stuck either. I remember those years. I was in college and recall laughing at all the Ronald Raygun jokes. Remember the scandal of "we begin bombing in five minutes" ? The press hated him; he was a war-monger with Alzheimers. But America continued to love him. ( Not me- being in college made me an idealistic lefty. I was one of the 10 people who voted for Mondale. Funny how a real paycheck can affects one's ideology.)

The bits I have listen to of O are not all that great. I don't get the enthrallment some feel. His voice pattern is clipped and artificial sounding to me- not at all emotive or soul stirring. Mr. Spock conveys more emotion with his eyebrows.

As for Bush, for the most part I found him nauseating to listen to. He has horrible pronunciation. Palin's voice is also annoying to me, ya know. McCain sounds whiney for a war hero. And Bill Clinton always sounded to me like a student who had done a little bit of the reading assignment and was trying to fake his way through.

Raygun , I mean, Reagan was OK to listen to. But he was an actor so that hardly counts.

In general I have always found it hard to listen to political speeches. I'd rather read them. Listening to them makes my skin crawl for some reason. I think it's because I don't believe most of them.

Levin, speaking at the Foreign Policy Association's annual dinner in Washington on Wednesday, said an investigation by his committee into detainee abuse charges over the use of the techniques -- now deemed torture by the Obama administration -- "gives the lie to Mr. Cheney's claims."

The Michigan Democrat told the crowd that the two CIA documents that Cheney wants released "say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques."

"I hope that the documents are declassified, so that people can judge for themselves what is fact, and what is fiction," he added.

Or, both Cheney and Levin are telling the truth. Levin is quoted as saying that the documents in question "say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques." That's an interesting and (pardon me, Professor) lawyerly way of putting it. I can imagine a document saying -- and I'm purely speculating here! -- that thanks to the interrogation of KSM the ageny foiled a plot to detonate two truck bombs in the center of the Golden Gate Bridge during the middle of rush hour. Such a document might, indeed, "say nothing about numbers of lives saved," but the numbers of lives saved would be substantial and everybody could see that. And such a document would not need to "connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques" since any reference to KSM, however oblique, allows the reasonable reader to infer that the interrogation went well beyond asking him pretty please.

But I think it's unlikely that we'll ever really see the documents because of the risk that someone from al Qaeda might read the documents, too, and deduce that some plot that they feared had been compromised really isn't and they can proceed with it.

Let's see, of the two individuals who have been vice presidents in the 21st century, one spent most of his time out of the public sight and we hardly ever heard anything from him while the other is ubiquitous and can hardly get two sentences out of his mouth without three or more gaffes.

What is really F'd up, however, is that now Biden has made more Obama jokes than Letterman, Leno and O'Brien combined.

I dislike Obama, but he's just a politician trying to win - I can't blame him for that, but I am sick and Fing tired of all the Obamabots in the media and elsewhere who can't stop fellating the guy 24/7.

To some extent, the left is hoist upon its own petard here, by perpetuating the meme for eight years that Bush (43) was dumb because he made verbal mistakes when speaking without a script (or teleprompter). Now they have their President, who is supposedly so much smarter than his predecessor, who can't do much better without his teleprompter. Does this mean that he is as stupid as Bush (43) was?

Yep. They look kind of hollow trying to defend the guy by saying "oh, he was exhausted" or "whaddayawant, everyone makes a verbal slip on occasion". True in both cases, but they spent eight years convincing people it was a sign of imbecility.

Bush is a whole lot more intelligent than the left made him out to be, and Obama not nearly.

Beginning in the weeks leading up to President Obama's meetings with Middle Eastern leaders, the administration laid the groundwork for its strong position against Israeli settlements, marking a break from the soft-gloved approach of years past. And this week, tensions have increased between Obama and the new Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following their meeting last week when Obama said, "there is a clear understanding that we have to make progress on settlements; that settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward," the AP reports.

Netanyahu's frustration with the Obama administration's demands was made apparent Wednesday when, according to Foreign Policy, he vented to a confidante the question: "What the hell do they want from me?"

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would respond quickly if moves by the communist government threaten America or its Asian allies.

"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region _ or on us," Gates told an annual international meeting of defense and security officials from Asia and the Pacific Rim.

"Yet Sotomayor did not live her entire childhood in a housing project in the South Bronx — she spent most of her teenage years in a middle-class neighborhood, attending private school and winning scholarships to Princeton and then Yale."

-I wonder what caused the transition - mom get re-married? Where I grew up private school was not the hallmark of middle-classedness, that was for the (relatively) rich kids.

Anyway, she's still had a solid career, but getting into Princeton from a good private school is a little easier than going from public hellhole in the Bronx.